Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Matthew Bryant is secretary of GFW Writers group and also is our in-house professor of the new Grammar Etiquette blogseries,
posted the second Wednesday of every month. He is an English teacher in
Denton, TX. When he isn't teaching he is ghost writing and working on
his novel. He says with small children he has learned to write fast.

If you have a question or a comment, please leave it in the comment section at the end of this article.

Where would we be without
idioms? Who would work drive-thru? Or clean public crappers? Or
make dialogue in stories more interesting for that matter? To
summarize, let's add vocabulary and categories to shake things up a
bit. At least give you something to consider when you've got a story
full of characters from all over the world (or multiple worlds) that
all speak the same way.

SLANG

Slang is the grand-daddy of
idioms, most of which are lumped, incorrectly I might add, into this
category. All languages have the 'proper' vocabulary and
pronunciation. At the same time, all languages possess different
levels of slang – which by definition is the shortening of words,
newly coined words through combination of existing words, or using a
word for a separate meaning.

Examples.

“What's up, bro?”

“That's ridonculous.”

“This party is ill.”

The key factor in slang is a
mutual understanding between communicating parties. Otherwise, one
or the other looks like a complete idiom.

JARGON

Jargon, much like slang, is
comprised of language additives and shortened words familiar with
members of a particular group, industry, or activity. Within jargon,
however, you see a lot more acronyms and codes. Honestly, at times
it's like talking to somebody that thinks texting is an actual
language. The most common places for excessive jargon are
scientists, who don't want to go around saying a bunch of chemicals
that most of us can't pronounce, and lawyers, who don't want normal
people knowing what they're talking about. Oh yes, and truckers,
over.

COLLIQUIALISM

Colloquialism is a type of
informal slang commonly used within a language. This relies heavily
on figurative language and is generally understood by the common
populace of a geographical area. The expression, “You don't have
the balls,” for instance, could refer to a skee-ball player who has
yet to insert tokens, but more than likely is a crude way of calling
somebody a coward.

REGIONALISM

What's the difference
between a soda, coke, or a pop? Location, location, location. Sure
they all reference the same thing, but ask for a pop in Dallas, Texas
and you're going to get some funny looks. By the same right, I don't
believe a native New Yorker would be caught dead telling somebody
they were fixing to go the movies. Along with accents, certain
regions will have their own ways of expressing things, utilizing
slang not found in other parts of the country.